Imperial Ecologies

Niokolo-Koba National Park (PNNK) in Senegal, established in 1954, challenges conventional narratives of colonial power by revealing its contested and multifaceted nature. This study, using original archival materials, demonstrates that the park's evolution was not solely dictated by French imperial authorities but was shaped by complex interactions among European administrators, international ecological scientists, local African villagers, and resistors at both local and imperial levels. The post-war context provided new opportunities for social control and economic development, yet the park's trajectory was also significantly influenced by local agency, environmental conditions, and emerging global conservation discourses. This research dismantles the notion of a 'colonial consensus' among Europeans and complicates the binary opposition between colonizer and colonized.

Demange, T. (2025). Imperial Ecologies. Journal for the History of Environment and Society, 10(1), 95–131. https://doi.org/10.1484/j.jhes.5.153991